College basketball teams across the country start jockeying for postseason position about now. Each game takes on more importance, each slip-up is magnified. Not so for UConn.

There is no postseason for the Huskies. UConn will play a dozen more games, and that's it. That is the reality UConn (13-5, 3-3 Big East) faces tonight when it travels to the Dunkin' Donuts Center to take on Big East rival Providence (10-10, 2-6). It's one more game closer to the end.

"It's kind of weird," guard Shabazz Napier said. "It's weird and messed up that we're not in the (postseason). It's hitting me now. Sometimes, it's difficult when you end up watching everybody else play and you want to play as well.

"I'm just motivated to play and hurt somebody else's postseason. If we can get wins and hurt somebody else's postseason, it will be good for me."

The Friars don't appear to be in line for a postseason spot beyond the one they'll get for the league tournament, but at least they still have a shot. UConn could be undefeated now and still be staring at the same postseason-free reality.

There is no sign that the internal motivation is waning. Wednesday's practice was a spirited, crisp one with plenty of enthusiasm. Still, UConn's being reduced to a spoiler role is certainly odd. The Huskies are in the midst of a scheduling stretch that surely allows them to make life hard on some of the teams in front of them in the Big East.

First is the matter of getting past Providence. UConn hasn't won at the always hostile Dunkin' Donuts Center since 2006, and it has lost five of the last seven meetings with the Friars. Spoiling down the road means first winning on the

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road in a place that has not been kind.

"We're going to have our hands full with them," UConn coach Kevin Ollie said. "Every team that goes in there has a challenge. We have to make sure we limit our turnovers and make sure their pressure defense doesn't dictate to us. We have to dictate to them."

UConn would like nothing more than to get on a roll now. The final dozen games will go by in a hurry with no more extended breaks in sight. The goal was to win the Big East, which is a lofty and likely unrealistic one, but after that the ultimate point is for the Huskies to improve on a game-by-game basis.

All they have is to look to the future and building the base for that during this regular season would be an awfully good idea. Of course, it is never an easy thing to do within the Big East, a conference that will almost be unrecognizable next year.

"The Big East is hard," Napier said. "I found that out my freshman year. You play in the Big East Tournament, that's the NCAA tourney right there. It's so hard. Any team can beat you on any given day.

"The second half of the season, you want to make sure you do as well as you can."

Of the teams considered at the lower level of the Big East, Providence has been the one that has been a particular problem for the Huskies in the last decade. Seven of the last 11 meetings have fallen in Providence's favor. Three of the last four victories UConn has against Providence have come courtesy of two Final Four teams (2009 and 2011) and one that was on the brink of the Final Four (2006).

UConn's not-so-good teams typically have painful experiences with the Friars. Nobody has labeled this team "not so good," but it certainly isn't Final Four material, if that was even a possibility.

Consider tonight's game the ultimate measuring stick for this team.

"We're just trying to take steps forward," UConn freshman Omar Calhoun said. "We're not looking at the past. It's just game-by-game going forward. We just know with every opponent that we have to leave it all on the court."

When: 7 p.m. today

Where: Dunkin' Donuts Center, Providence, R.I.

TV, Radio: ESPN2, WTIC-AM (1080)

Records: UConn 13-5, 3-3 Big East; Providence 10-10, 2-6

Series: UConn leads, 42-28, but the Friars have won five of the last seven meetings.

Worth noting: UConn hasn't won at the Dunkin' Donuts Center since Jan. 28, 2006. The Huskies have lost their last three trips to the building, including a 72-70 defeat last season ... Former Providence coach Tim Welsh is doing color analysis for ESPN2. It is just his second trip to his old home since being fired by Providence in March 2008. The first came last week ... Former Fairfield coach Ed Cooley is in his second season as the Friars' head coach. His associate head coach is former UConn assistant Andre LaFleur. George Blaney's son, Brian, is also a member of the Providence coaching staff ... UConn gets its first look at Providence's Kris Dunn, a highly recruited guard from New London High. Dunn is averaging 6.4 points per game ... UConn has not played consecutive home games since playing four straight at home at the end of December ... Providence guard Bryce Cotton leads the Big East in scoring at 21.7 points per game ... In the last five minutes of games and overtime, the Huskies are shooting 84.7 percent (100 of 118) from the free-throw line ... UConn guard Ryan Boatright sat out the last 15 minutes of practice Wednesday with ice on his left knee. He has been battling tendinitis all year and is expected to play tonight.

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